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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24233782">Surprises and Challenges</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/roo2010/pseuds/roo2010'>roo2010</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>My Life with Tom [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe RPF, Tom Hiddleston - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Actor Tom Hiddleston, Established Relationship, F/M, Medical Procedures, Pregnancy, Tom Hiddleston - AU, Tom Hiddleston Is A Sweetheart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:09:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,770</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24233782</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/roo2010/pseuds/roo2010</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The next steps are taken along the path of having a little family</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tom Hiddleston/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>My Life with Tom [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/237423</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Surprises and Challenges</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffiend/gifts">Caffiend</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is for my darling Caffiend, leader of the US branch of my cheerleading squad, who had been with me through thick and thin, and graciously let me steal back the 'Precious Beans' when she found something better for her to use. She has known about this development longer that nearly anybody else and had to wait a blooming long time for it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            It was a big day, Tom and I were due at the local big maternity unit for my twelve week scan when we would see the baby for the first time and I really wasn’t sure who was more excited. I had been through it all before of course but it was all new to Tom, at least this close to the action. Once again we sat in the waiting area with all the other expectant parents, some further along than we were but all looking that strange combination of excited and nervous that prospective parents exhibit in these situations. I was quite uncomfortable if I’m honest, the ultrasound required the mother-to-be to have a full bladder and consequently I needed to use the facilities and couldn’t. The only thing that made it bearable was the knowledge that every other woman sitting and waiting with me was in exactly the same predicament.</p>
<p>            Thankfully it wasn’t long until my name was called which, of course, caused a few heads to turn in our direction but we just smiled at those who smiled at us and headed towards the radiographer and her open door. Tom helped me get situated on the bed and then took a seat to my left, my hand in his as always. My previous experience stood me in good stead as it was easy for me to push down the waistband on my legging and push up my baggy jumper, comfort being a much higher priority than style today. The radiographer gave the usual warning about the gel being cold as she tucked the paper sheets around me to protect my clothes. I thought to myself that my bump looked slightly more pronounced than I was expecting but dismissed it as the promised cold gel was spread over. I exchanged a quick glance with Tom who was watching intently as the radiographer took the ultrasound wand and proceeded to move it firmly around trying to find baby and get a good view on the screen for us. Soon the picture resolved itself into a recognisable shape and Tom squeezed my hand tightly as he saw our little one for the first time.</p>
<p>“Would you like to hear the heartbeat?” the radiographer asked.</p>
<p>“Yes please.” Tom and I answered simultaneously and then giggled a little.</p>
<p>A couple of knobs and dials were twisted and then the weird but wonderful whooshing sound came over the speakers. To my slight confusion it didn’t sound quite like Lizzie had at this stage but I thought it might be because of the advances in technology since then. That bit of self-comfort lasted until I saw the radiographer’s face. Her brow was furrowed and her mouth had thinned and all of a sudden I was incredibly nervous. Attuned as he was to me Tom noticed immediately but before he could speak the radiographer announced that she would have to get a second opinion.</p>
<p>As soon as she was out of the room Tom said “Darling, what’s going on? What does she need a second opinion for?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know Love” I answered shakily “I don’t want there to be anything wrong with our baby!”</p>
<p>Tom was saved from answering by the return of the radiographer with a more senior lady in tow. More gel was applied to my tummy and the wand made its way around again. The new midwife stopped a couple of times, focussing on certain points and changing some settings on the machine. Suddenly I could hear what I supposed had precipitated the need for a second opinion, there was a sort of echo in the baby’s heartbeat. I glanced at Tom but he seemed oblivious for the moment, though his concentration was wholly on the screen showing the inside of my uterus. Suddenly the senior midwife smiled broadly.</p>
<p>“There they are!” she exclaimed and as I watched the screen image resolved itself into two clear images. Before I could utter a word she announced what she’d found.</p>
<p>“Congratulations Mr and Mrs Hiddleston, you are expecting twins!”</p>
<p>“Twins!” echoed Tom weakly vocalising what I was thinking. I knew twins generally run in families and there was no history of them on my side as far as I was aware, though I wasn’t sure about Tom’s</p>
<p>“It’s a little early to tell whether they are identical or fraternal” continued the senior midwife “but there are definitely two babies in there.</p>
<p>“Oh” I said weakly “Thank you, I think!”</p>
<p>She chuckled “I take it you had no inkling that twins might be a possibility then?”</p>
<p>“Not in the slightest.” I admitted “though it does explain why I am showing slightly earlier than I thought I would be.”</p>
<p>“Would it also explain your tiredness Darling?” Tom interjected. I looked at him, he’d paled slightly but his eyes, always a barometer of his emotions to me, were alight with excitement.</p>
<p>The junior midwife answered him. “Most probably yes. Your wife is growing two babies instead of one so, of course, that takes a lot more energy. Don’t worry though; we’ll make sure that your family will receive the best of care. Now before we clean up would you like a photo?”</p>
<p>“Yes please.” Tom answered immediately. The wand moved yet again to get the clearest picture possible of the twins and in a few moments Tom was clutching a card in his hand that held one of the most important photos we’d ever possess. Finally I was allowed to clean up and Tom took it upon himself to wipe my belly clean, tenderly rubbing over my tiny bump as if he could try and divine the truth of what he’d been told. I knew how he felt though; I was still trying to get my head around it myself. Twins! Two of everything, double the expense and double the work. Oh boy, were we in for a ride and a half. Most importantly though at that precise moment was my need to find the nearest toilet as my bladder was very insistent that it needed to be emptied urgently. Once I was comfortable again we headed back to the car and from thence to our home and the only time Tom let go of me was when he was actually driving</p>
<p>            We got home with minimal fuss but that all changed when we got in the apartment. Tom insisted that I spend the rest of the day on the sofa with my feet up. He made himself a cup of tea and me a welcome glass of squash and then sank gracefully to the floor by my tummy and proceeded to have a wonderful one-sided conversation with the twins</p>
<p>“Hello my Precious Beans” he started “its Daddy here. Mummy and I have just discovered that there are two of you now and we are so excited”</p>
<p>Well that’s one way of putting it I thought but couldn’t bear to stop Tom’s delightful monologue.</p>
<p>“Mummy and Daddy saw you today” he continued “that was a nice surprise. Now you both settle down and give Mummy some peace today. She gets tired quite quickly now so needs her rest” he leant over and planted two kisses on my abdomen through my clothes and sat back on the floor so is head was practically in my lap.</p>
<p>“Happy Darling?” he asked quietly.</p>
<p>“Petrified” I admitted “I have no idea how we’ll cope with two babies and your work commitments. We have so much to get and …” I stopped dead as I realised a fundamental truth. Tom looked at me with concern.</p>
<p>“What is it Darling, what have you thought of?”</p>
<p>“Neither of our homes is big enough.” I said shakily “There’s no spare room here and not much more space at the cottage. We’re going to need something bigger!”</p>
<p>“That’s not a problem Jackie” Tom answered, his use of my given name proof that he was taking what I said seriously and not just giving my fears lip service. “We can start hunting straight away if you want. Most of it can be done online now anyway so that’s a bonus, and I think I can safely say that money won’t be a problem. I’d like something close to the City if possible, but in its own grounds, the twins will need a garden to play in when they are a little older.”</p>
<p>“If we’re compiling a wish list” I interjected “I’d love it if we could stay in the village, assuming you still want two homes?”</p>
<p>“Of course I do Darling” Tom assured “Your village is important to you so it’s important to me too, and we should get a good price for the cottage to offset some of the cost.” He looked wistful for a moment. “I’d like to keep this place though, depending on how far we move out of the centre, it would make a good base if I’m doing multiple bits in town.”</p>
<p>I nodded my agreement. “That makes sense, though you’ll have quite the property portfolio soon.”</p>
<p>“Consider it and investment for our old age.” Tom said cheekily.</p>
<p>“Old age!” I exclaimed “we’re only 36, still in our prime. We’re not past it yet!”</p>
<p>“I know Darling” Tom soothed “still a flat in town would be useful in more ways than one. So we start looking tomorrow?”</p>
<p>“Yes please” I answered “having come to the decision we don’t want to leave it too long or I’ll <em>be</em> the size of a house and the removal men will be totally confused. We’ll need to get at least one nursery ready anyway and with our life the way it is London makes more sense for that.”</p>
<p>“I’m looking forward to that.” Tom admitted.</p>
<p>“What? Decorating?” I wanted clarification as the only decorating we’d had done had been carried out by contractors.</p>
<p>“Yes.” Was the reply “Decorating a room for our children, pouring love and our creativity into it, what could be better?”</p>
<p>His enthusiasm was contagious and I could already imagine the pair of us drawing and painting and generally getting speckles of paint everywhere. It nearly wouldn’t matter what it looked like as long as it had been done with love.</p>
<p>            Following breakfast the next morning Tom booted up his laptop and we had a surprising amount of fun trying to find a family home. Our wish list was actually pretty comprehensive, at least for our London home. We needed off street parking for at least two cars, a decent sized back garden, the aforementioned four or five bedrooms, a room that could be an office for Tom, lots of natural light for my sewing, a large kitchen as the galley kitchen was fine for now but add in all the paraphernalia that one baby, let alone two would require and, if nothing else we’d need a lot more worktop space, and I personally didn’t want it to look too modern. Our list for Wiltshire was a lot simpler because we wouldn’t be living there full time but we both loved the village and the area so much that having a house there was pretty much a foregone conclusion. We simply needed the parking, enclosed back garden, four bedrooms and a fair amount of room.</p>
<p>            The London property turned out to be fairly simple, we ideally wanted to be on the western side of the city for ease of getting to and from Wiltshire and of all the properties we looked at online only two really stood out, and they were both in the same area of London; Belsize Park. We arranged viewings, conscious of the fact that, although my beloved had said he was going to have a quiet year, he did have to go to America for about a month to shoot the eagerly awaited Avengers sequels. It was all in strict secrecy though and, apart from the fact I knew he was going I had no idea of the plot line or anything.</p>
<p>            Viewing was actually great fun, the last time I’d done anything like it was with Sean, so long ago the memories were very blurry. Both houses looked lovely from the outside with neat front gardens and the insides were gorgeous. Both had five bedrooms, one with an en suite, and a large family bathroom. All the bedrooms were a good size, and both houses had at least one second bedroom that would be big enough for a nursery for the Precious Beans. The only difference really between them was in the kitchen. One house was all modern lines and sleek, shiny finishes and not to my taste at all and the second one was much more homely; with farmhouse style cupboards and even a built in Welsh Dresser style cabinet. I was smitten at once. There was also room for a large kitchen table and a separate dining room for more formal occasions. All in all property two was perfect and we put in an offer that very same day, which was accepted a couple of days later. To say we were elated was an understatement. It meant we could get on with the paperwork as soon as possible which was important to me because, obviously, the later on in my pregnancy I got the harder I would find it to get around.</p>
<p>            Without there being the same urgency over the Wiltshire property and adding in the fact that we wouldn’t be living there full time, we could take our time. However it so happened that a house I’d always wanted to live in came on the market and I persuaded Tom that we needed to book a viewing. I’d known the owners when I was much younger, though the house had changed hands a couple of times since then, but I knew it would be perfect for us. It was Grade Two listed, with a front door and three large windows in the front with wisteria climbing the walls. It did look small from the road and I could see Tom eyeing it sceptically as we stood outside but what he didn’t know, and I did was the house had two large wings extending away from the road giving us plenty of room for quite a small frontage.</p>
<p>Tom realised as soon as we stepped through the front door with the agent that the house was a bit of a T.A.R.D.I.S. as he looked appreciatively around the large hallway with an equally large staircase in the middle of it.</p>
<p>“I can see why you like this one Darling; it is very deceptive from the outside isn’t it?”</p>
<p>“Yes” I agreed “but it was always lovely inside when I was younger.”</p>
<p>“I didn’t realise you knew it that well?” he remarked.</p>
<p>“A friend from school” I answered “her parents sold it a long time ago and moved away.”</p>
<p>Following the estate agent we did the tour of the house and apart from the décor everything was how I remembered it, even down to the large patio doors that made up practically one wall of the large kitchen.</p>
<p>“This is lovely Darling” Tom said quietly “it’s just a shame it’s in Wiltshire and not London but if we get it I can see us spending an appreciable amount of time here.”</p>
<p>I was really glad he liked the house, though we were being careful not to look too eager in front of the estate agent. I could see us as a family here, with play equipment in the large garden and those patio doors open as wide as they would go. Having seen everything we wanted to, including the double garage, we headed back to the cottage to discuss our options.</p>
<p>“Shall we get it, do you think?” Tom queried as we cradled our drinks.</p>
<p>“Oh I think so” I said airily, sipping my fruit tea. Our Precious Beans outright rejected the thought of me drinking ‘normal’ tea or coffee by making me feel sick just thing about it but fruit tea they tolerated so I was busy making my way through all the flavours that appealed. “Seriously though” I continued “it is a good fit for us. There is enough room for all of us and space for guests. There’s a room that would make a great office for you if we extend our stay sometimes. The kitchen is even nicer than the one in London, and there are enough toilets and bathrooms. What’s not to like?”</p>
<p>“Oh I do love your practical head.” Tom said with a smile as he leant over to peck a kiss on my cheek. “What about your heart though?”</p>
<p>I giggled “That’s easy, my heart has wanted to live there since my friend’s parents sold it!”</p>
<p>“That’s why you were so insistent! He said, still smiling.</p>
<p>“Well yes” I replied “you must admit it would work well though?”</p>
<p>“It would” Tom admitted “I do like it a lot; we should put an offer in.”</p>
<p>“I’ll leave that to you” I decided “let you deal with any stress that causes, and I suppose we’d better put this place on the market too.”</p>
<p>“Yes” Tom agreed “then we will just have to see what, if anything, the vendors are leaving before we decide what to take”</p>
<p>I nodded my agreement as I tried to work out what <em>had</em> to come with us. I thought the furniture from the cottage would fit OK into the new house in the village and anything else would be easy enough to obtain. Tom was already on his phone to the estate agent and from his reactions I guessed it could be good news.</p>
<p>            As it turned out all three sales went through without a hitch and very soon the flat was full of cardboard boxes and people as we attempted to move house. It was strange though as we were keeping the apartment so most of the furniture was staying, and even some basic clothes and necessities for when we needed to use it again. We had, however, had a great time shopping for furniture for the Belsize Park house and had managed to get it all delivered on the same day so although there wasn’t much to move from the apartment the day would still be very busy with setting up the two most important rooms, the kitchen and bedroom!</p>
<p>To my surprise and delight we were descended on by a horde of Hiddlestons and assorted friends who all pitched in to help us move as smoothly as possible. Super organised as always I’d written lists of what we wanted in each room which I’d stuck to the appropriate doors to aid identification and very soon found myself relegated to directing operations as all our helpers seemed to be under strict instructions not to let me lift anything heavier than a cup of fruit tea. They didn’t, however, mange to stop me walking from room to room checking on progress and the positioning of the bigger items of furniture. Tom and Diana both tried to make me take a break at separate points and I did, for about five minutes. It was the first time I’d found moving in exciting, as the other two times I’d done it recently it was to escape memories so nowhere near the same emotions. Moving in with my late husband Sean, of course, was different again as we were trying to fill a house with basically two bedrooms. This however was setting up an admittedly huge to me house as a home for a rapidly expanding family, yet another new chapter in my life with Tom and I was excited to see it all come to fruition.</p>
<p>It was a very long day though and by the time the last box had been packed away our wonderful helpers and my wonderful spouse were completely exhausted. They had come to a consensus very early on that there was no way they were leaving me boxes to empty and put away so they had literally done everything apart from the small room that I would use to store the materials for my cross stitch business and my sewing corner in the main room, though my gorgeous arm chair was just where I wanted it. Tom and I had decided that, as a thank you to our indefatigable helpers we would stand them a take-away of their choice and Emma and Lizzie, still more than sisters than aunt and niece had headed off to source some disposable flatware and cutlery and were back before long with everything we needed for our impromptu feast on the floor, there not being room around our new dining table for all of us, though everyone was insistent that I didn’t eat my food sitting on the floor so James and Diana joined me at the table. Tom and James made plans for James to come over the next day and help with the start of the nursery. I knew that Tom was really looking forward to getting is teeth into that particular project and had thought about colour schemes already. We had decided not to find out the sexes of the twins wanting it to be a surprise which meant that a neutral colour scheme of pale yellows and greens was being favoured. There was also some furniture to make as well and Tom freely admitted that James’ skills with a screwdriver were miles better than Tom’s own. It would be nice, I reflected, to have James over for the bulk of the day, we didn’t see him as much as I’d like due to our various commitments and the sheer distances involved. Tom’s recent work schedule hadn’t helped much either but with him taking a break this year, notwithstanding one press tour for the hugely anticipated Thor: Ragnarok and a month away doing some filming that he <em>still</em> wouldn’t tell me about we should have a lot more time on our hands, at least up until the twins arrival anyway!</p>
<p>Having been adequately fed and watered our gallant band of helpers cleared up after themselves by the simple expedient of throwing all their rubbish in a black bin bag after storing any left overs in the fridge which was at least looking like somebody lived here now. I was going to go food shopping the next day to pick up some necessities and something nice for tea to celebrate moving in. Unsurprisingly we ended up having an early night and, as was our new norm, we both fell asleep with at least one hand resting on my now, significantly protruding bump.</p>
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